Nation's Oldest City: Hurston took part in Signal Corps disagreement

SUSAN PARKERHistorian

Published Sunday, September 14, 2003

While living in St. Augustine, author Zora Neale Hurston started a conflict that would last long after she left our town.. Hurston came here in the spring of 1942 to finish a book manuscript and teach at Florida Normal and Industrial Institute (later Florida Memorial College). The remnants of the college building are at the corner of County Road 214 and Holmes Boulevard. Hurston lived at the house at 791 West King St. An historical marker commemorating her stay at that site was unveiled about two months ago.

Her residence was about a mile from the college, but that was probably too close for comfort for the college's president, William Gray, Jr. Prof. Gordon Patterson of Florida Institute of Technology says that Hurston "managed to turn a local dispute which revolved around the quality of cafeteria food and dormitory overcrowding into an indictment that reached the highest levels in the War Department." The incident marked Hurston's on-going disagreement with many of the nation's black leaders' handling of racism.

Florida Normal had been awarded a half million dollars to launch a Signal Corps Civilian Training program. The college badly needed the infusion of cash; falling enrollments had strained its financial situation.

The Signal Corps program was part of a move to increase the proportion of blacks working in the war effort during World War II. Hurston accused that the War Department chose a small and cash-strapped school such as Florida Normal, over larger schools because the War Department did not really want the program of incorporation of blacks to succeed.

Students in the Signal Corps program complained about the cafeteria food, the lack of hot water because of antiquated plumbing and overcrowding in the dorms. They staged a walkout of the cafeteria to protest the food. Gray dismissed some of the enrollees who had complained when they refused to apologize to Grays' wife, who was in charge of the cafeteria. Hurston shot back that she could tolerate Gray's incompetence in the handling of the program, but not vanity.

Hurston moved to Daytona Beach in January 1943 before she could witness Gray's efforts to improve conditions at the school for which the Signal Corps money had been the springboard. Gray succeeded in obtaining another $700,000 for Florida Normal's other War Productions programs. Gray moved on, too. He became president of Florida A & M in Tallahassee in 1944.